December 2012

December 27, 2012

OKLAHOMA CITY -- This was shaping up to be a signature victory for the Dallas Mavericks against one of the NBA's elite teams.

But OKC forward Sereg Ibaka made sure that didn't happen. Especially when he collected two offensive rebounds on one key late possession.

With the Thunder leading 96-95, Kevin Durant missed a shot, but Ibaka collected the offensive rebound with 1:02 left in regulation play. Then, Russell Westbrook missed an eight-footer, and Ibaka grabbed another offensive rebound with 43.4 seconds left.

Those two boards by Ibaka helepd eat up some more precious time as the Thunder to beat the Mavs in overtime, 111-105.

"Their rebounding was a problem the whole game,'' coach Rick Carlisle said. "On that one possession it was huge.

"They jumped over us a couple of times, I thought maybe the whistle could have blown. But I haven't see it on film yet.''

OKC won the rebounding battle over the Mavs, 56-46, inclduing 17-10 on the offensive end. Ibaka led the way with a game-high 17 rebounds, including eight offensively.

December 25, 2012

DALLAS -- OJ Mayo missed practice Monday with the flu. His game lately also hasn't been up to par.

Mayo was 8-of-12 from the field and 2-of-2 from three-point territory and scored 26 points against Philadelphia last Tuesday. But in the last three games Mayo is just 9-of-33 from the field, 1-of-11 from three-point land and tallied a total of only 25 points against Miami, Memphis and San Antonio.

Coach Rick Carlisle offered no excuses for Mayo's declining numbers.

"The caliber of competition has raised, which has made it more difficult for all of us,'' Carlisle said. "I don’t think that this is a day to make this about one guy’s struggles.

"We win and lose as a team. That’s where our collective mindset has got to be at.''

DALLAS -- OJ Mayo missed practice Monday with the flu. His game lately also hasn't been up to par.

Mayo was 8-of-12 from the field and 2-of-2 from three-point territory and scored 26 points against Philadelphia last Tuesday. But in the last three games Mayo is just 9-of-33 from the field, 1-of-11 from three-point land and tallied a total of only 25 points against Miami, Memphis and San Antonio.

Coach Rick Carlisle offered no excuses for Mayo's declining numbers.

"The caliber of competition has raised, which has made it more difficult for all of us,'' Carlisle said. "I don’t think that this is a day to make this about one guy’s struggles.

"We win and lose as a team. That’s where our collective mindset has got to be at.''

DALLAS -- OJ Mayo missed practice Monday with the flu. His game lately also hasn't been up to par.

Mayo was 8-of-12 from the field and 2-of-2 from three-point territory and scored 26 points against Philadelphia last Tuesday. But in the last three games Mayo is just 9-of-33 from the field, 1-of-11 from three-point land and tallied a total of only 25 points against Miami, Memphis and San Antonio.

Coach Rick Carlisle offered no excuses for Mayo's declining numbers.

"The caliber of competition has raised, which has made it more difficult for all of us,'' Carlisle said. "I don’t think that this is a day to make this about one guy’s struggles.

"We win and lose as a team. That’s where our collective mindset has got to be at.''

SAN ANTONIO --After his first game of the season Sunday night against the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks superstar forward Dirk Nowitzki said his surgically repaired right knee gave him no problems.

"The knee felt fine, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have given it a shot,'' Nowitzki said after the Spurs drilled the Mavs, 129-91. "It felt fine (Saturday).''

Nowitzki was expected to go through at least two full contact practices before returning to play in a game. But he kept making so much progress that he figured he couldn't afford to wait for that to happen.

"I had some of the low-minute guys go over with me to the gym (on Saturday),'' Nowitzki said. "The high-minute guys had the day off.

"We played some 3-on-3, 4-on-4 full court and it felt fine. So that’s why I said (Sunday) morning if it feels good (Sunday) morning I'm going to try and give it a go.''

Nowitzki wound up playing 20 minutes against the Spurs. He was 3-of-4 from the field and finished with eight points, six rebounds and a steal.

Nowitzki played 20 minutes, scored eight points and grabbed six boards and was 3-of-4 from the field in his season debut against the Spurs. But it was yet another game when the Mavs fumbled and stumbled all over themselves that has to be a major concern to the team's coaching staff.

"We don’t make the right play on defense,'' Nowitzki said. "I don’t think it's from selfishness.

"Maybe we don’t react quick enough, maybe it's not natural enough to the guys to hear all the calls,the switching of coverages. You’ve got to pay attention and you've got to be smart out there. We just didn’t show that tonight.''

The Mavs, who turned the ball over 20 times, also have to do a much better job of protecting the basketball.